


The Great Pumpkin Patch

by 12thdoctorwhomst, fishcustardfairytales



Series: The Non-Canonical Adventures of the Thirteenth Doctor [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, TARDIS - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-02-18 20:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13107657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/12thdoctorwhomst/pseuds/12thdoctorwhomst, https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishcustardfairytales/pseuds/fishcustardfairytales
Summary: The newly regenerated Doctor meets Yumi Emerson, an American who believes she was born a few centuries too early. However, will The Doctor and Yumi be able to save that future from a threat living undetected beneath their noses?





	1. Chapter 1

The Doctor closed her eyes and let the sound of the TARDIS’ humming fill her ears. It was like music. She slid her hand along the console controls. Could there be anything more… sexy? She opened her eyes and smiled, looking up at the rising and lowering center. Suddenly, she jerked forward, over the console and then backwards, almost falling onto the cold floor. Slapping a hand on her forehead, she gasped. “Well then! I guess I’m not entirely done yet! Perhaps it’ll take a little longer than I thought. The side effects of replacing every cell in your body, well, you could only imagine!”

The whirling of the TARDIS came to a stop; she had landed somewhere, but where exactly? Well, that’s what adventure is all about! The Doctor tightened her suspenders and opened the doors. A shadowed glow entered the TARDIS; which revealed that she was in another forest. She stepped out and close the doors behind her. The sun was falling in the west now and it’s golden glow brightened the forest. The Doctor took a large sniff of the air. “A different forest and a different country. How exciting! It's nearly dusk here though.” She started to run north, in and out of the cascade of oak trees, wondering where it may lead her.

A sudden low growl from beneath startled her and she tripped over a knotted root. The Doctor did a faceplant in the dirt. Picking herself up, she leaned up against a large oak tree to catch her breath. “Must I always land face first? I have arms, don’t I?” She did a quick check. “Yup, still two.” She wiped off the dirt from her face. She started north again, walking now until she saw through the trees a large dim glow. She squinted to try and get a better look. Was it a town? A City? Event? Whatever it was, that was The Doctor’s destination now.

She began to walk towards the lights and heard another growl. She held her hand over her stomach. “Never felt this hungry before… or have I?” She felt something rise up in her throat and coughed. Leftover energy left her mouth, swirling up into the air. Before she knew it, she was standing in a field across from the lights; which, she could now see were emitting from a dip on the other side of the field. The field contained a very strange organism. The name of it escaped The Doctor, but whatever it was, they were extremely large and orange. Was it alien? She walked up to one of them and put her hands onto the enormous orange ball. “Why were they all sitting in the field?” she asked herself. A loud roar of clapping caught her attention and she lifted her head up. “Hello?” she called out. The clapping; however, only got louder and louder.

Taking her hands off of the oversized orange, she made her way close to where the sounds were coming from. It was coming from the small valley. Walking down the hill, she stopped abruptly to see the sight of hundreds of people crowded around a large stage. A large, roundish man stood center front all dressed in a tight suit with a microphone. His voice boomed with excitement.

“Hello everybody! Welcome to Lake Wildwood’s 52nd annual pumpkin pie eating contest!”

The word pie struck The Doctor as her stomach started growling again. “Pie…” she looked back up the hill. “Pie! Pumpkin pie!” She grinned. “That’s what they were called!” she thought as she stumbled into the crowd. The Doctor watched as a few people began to head up onto the stage. The smell of the pumpkin pie finally came to her and she laughed. “Pumpkin pie! That’s exactly what I need right now!” she shouted as she made her way to the stage.

“Looks like we’ve got another contestant then!” the announcer said into his mic. He gave a strange expression as he watched The Doctor struggle to pull herself up onto the stage. He kneeled down to talk to her. “Um, ma'am? There’s a staircase right over there,” he pointed over to stage left.

“Oh! Of course, there is!” She dropped down from the stage and rushed up the stairs, nearly tripping as she did. There was an empty plastic chair with the number 13 attached to the back of it. She sat down and looked over to her right at all of the contestants. They were all seated towards the large crowd of people at a very long table. Everyone had one pie in front of them to eat with homemade whipped cream in the center of each. It made her stomach growl like a lion.

“Now, what’s your name Contestant #13?”

“Umm… John… Johanna Smith,” The Doctor said unto the mic. She had nearly forgotten she was now a woman, so common human names for men would be harder to use as cover.

“Well, welcome Johanna! You don’t sound like you’re from ‘round here. Where you visiting from?” the announcer inquired.

“Um, Leeds; the UK,” The Doctor lied.

“Wow! That's quite the trip, but it'll be worth it to try my wife's homemade pumpkin pie.” The crowd cheered. “And as we all know, the winner gets to have a tour of the Emerson Pumpkin Patch over that hill,” he said while pointing in the direction The Doctor had come from, “which, are the same pumpkins that were used to make these pies!” Another cheer came from the audience. “Do all of you have an appetite for pie?”

“Do I ever!” The Doctor gleefully said.

“That’s the spirit! Ready?” cried the announcer. “Start!”

A bell rang and instantly The Doctor dug into her pie. She wasn't even chewing the first few bits because of how hungry she was. “Oh! This is really good! It’s like a slice of Gallifrey,” she thought. One by one, she inhaled large portions into her mouth. Glancing to the right, she realized she was already halfway done, while the other contestants were struggling to get through a quarter of their pie. Her stomach continued to growl as she looked down at all those other pies, saddened that she had finished hers. “Do you need help with that?” she asked the person next to her. Contestant #12 looked at her with wide eyes upon seeing that she had already finished her pie. He looked back down to his, but it wasn’t there!

The audience watched in horror as The Doctor wolfed down his pie right after her own. “Oh, my!” the announcer exclaimed. “Well, umm... it seems that somebody has already finished, twice!” The announcer grabbed The Doctor’s wrist and raised her hand into the air. She looked up, surprised. Pumpkin pie covered her entire face. “Johanna from Leeds has done it! And at record-breaking speed too!” The audience cheered and clapped for her. The Doctor looked out at all the people and gave a big bow. It was nice to see so many happy faces, but there was a much more urgent matter to be attended to.

“Do you have any more?” The Doctor whispered to the man as her stomach rumbled loudly.

“More?” he boomed into the mic, silencing the audience. “She says she can do more!” The audience went into an uproar. “Name your price,” he said to her.

“Umm… 8 more pies.”

“8 pies?” the man said flabbergasted. She nodded proudly. “Ready when you are!” She sat back down at the table and cracked her fingers. Another man came around to place all of the pies in front of her.

Shoveling the pie into her face, she finished within a few minutes. The crowd stood shocked. “And there she goes! The winner of California's one and only pumpkin pie eating contest!” The crowd went into an uproar again. The Doctor stood up proudly and bowed to them once more. She was then escorted off the stage and what looked like a country band started to set up their gig. The announcer approached her once the band started playing.

“Say, that was mighty impressive!”

“Well, I was fairly hungry…”

“I could tell. Say, are you staying down at the Wildwood Inn perchance?”

“Why?”

“Oh, I just wanted to know if you would be around for tomorrow. We can begin the tour in the morning. My wife, Lily, the one who made those pies will be there.” The Doctor gave him a confused look as he stuck out his hand. “The names Gordon. Gordon Emerson. I run and own the pumpkin patch here.” She smiled and shook his hand.

“Okay, Emerson. I’ll be there tomorrow. Is eight good?”

“Wonderful! Now, I actually have to go do something, so I’ll see you then.” She waved him goodbye and headed off towards the field.

“Where are you old girl?” The Doctor said as she weaved in and out of the oaks. The sun was nearly gone, but the moon’s silvery light compensated for that. She looked up to see that it was just about a full moon. The falling leaves glittered in its light like the ones on Gallifrey. Her reminiscences were interrupted when she smacked into a wall. “Who put a wall in the middle of a forest?” The Doctor thought. She took a few steps backwards and saw that it was the TARDIS. “Caught me off guard, I see?” She laughed as she opened the doors and stepped inside. “Guess we can move a couple hours forward. And closer too, so we can take that tour!” The whirling of the TARDIS engines started up and that blue box slowly faded away from the silvered oak forest.

***

“Oh, I should have put on my better shoes.” Lily Emerson looked down at the sole of her left shoe; which was slowly coming off. She sighed and continued on her way. It was dark now, but the moon, along with her flashlight, helped her see better. She didn’t want to take her chances and trip on stray roots. A small wind howled and Lily felt a shiver up her spine. She suddenly came to a stop when something in the corner of her eye moved. Turning around, she watched as one of the pumpkins started shifting on the ground. It was one of the bigger pumpkins too. After using the new fertilizer the pumpkins had been growing bigger and bigger, so it was strange to see it moving. Was it an animal that was moving it? She pointed her flashlight to see nothing but the orange ball.

“Hello?” she said quietly. She slowly approached the pumpkin and placed her free hand on it. “Nothing,” she thought, “I must be getting really tired.” Instantly, a vine shot out of the ground and wrapped around her ankles. Lily screamed; dropping her flashlight. The vine was pulling her down and the ground was eating her like quicksand. Her shoes filled up with soil and she struggled to break free from the vine. The ground was passed her chest by now and she gasped for air. The soil was weighing in on her and breathing became a new part of the battle. “Help me!” Lily yelled into the night. No one responded or came for her, and in just a few seconds, Lily Emerson was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello reader! We hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned for future updates. If you are interested, you can follow both of us on Tumblr. @12thdoctorwhomst @the-young-doctor-of-gallifrey


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS appeared behind a small shed on the Emerson property. It was hiding in a line of trees that surrounded the Emerson home. It was a nice, two-story house. The siding on it was a pale blue with small white details all around. The back of it had a wooden porch with a BBQ, plastic lawn chairs, and a glass table on it. The roofing was intact in most places and there was a small satellite dish attached to it.

The sun was just rising and a few thin clouds could be seen near the horizon. Canadian Geese flew over the house, honking, and continued southwest across the pumpkin patch. “What a beautiful day,” The Doctor thought as she breathed in the morning air. The farm had that earthy smell to it; which, was always comforting to her.

The Doctor walked around the house to the front door. It was wooden with a little peephole in it. She knocked. “Hello? It’s The, um- Johanna Smith. I’m here for that tour.” No answer. “Maybe they were still asleep?” The Doctor thought. “But farmers are usually up earlier than most people.” She knocked once more, this time with more force. Sadly, no one answered the door. “How very strange. Well, I guess I’ll be off then…” She began her walk around the blue house towards the shed.

“Hey!” The Doctor turned to where the voice was coming from. It was Mr. Emerson. He wore a brown plaid shirt, heavy looking boots, a dirtied pair of blue jeans, and a gun in a holster on his left hip. He was walking from the west facing barn towards The Doctor. “Glad to see you didn’t get lost! Hahaha!”

“Haha, well, I nearly was about to leave because I thought no one was awake.”

“Yumi didn’t open the door for you?”

“No…”

“That girl! Will she ever learn to use that alarm clock of hers? I’m sorry Johanna.”

“It’s no problem at all.”

“Okay then. Shall start the tour? I just finished getting Alex ready.” The Doctor nodded and the two walked over to the wooden barn. It wasn’t painted like most barns are and for some reason, it reminded The Doctor of her childhood. Thankfully, the inside was completely different to the one she remembered so vividly. A single horse was harnessed to a carriage. Mr. Emerson climbed up to the driver’s seat and leaned his hand to help The Doctor up. “Alright, Alex. Let’s head out. Hiya!”

***

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! A hand fell onto the snooze button the sixth, no, seventh time? Whatever number it was, Yumi was still cocooned in her bed sheets. She had done it again, even though she said she wouldn’t. Of course, she told this lie every morning. “What time even was it?” she thought. With all the energy she could muster, she rolled over to face the digital clock. “7 am? So that would mean…” she counted on her hand, “5 hours of sleep so far.” It was a slight improvement from yesterday. “I’ll have to take a nap later then.”

In a sleepy daze, Yumi tried to recall what had happened the night before. The Lake Wildwood Festival was on, but it was childish as always. The events and shows were all subpar and her only regret was not leaving sooner. But instead of going to bed early, she watched foreign cartoons and really popular television episodes in the comfort of her bed. Her parents must have come home at some point, but she was so engrossed with her shows that she didn’t even notice them. Her headphones really helped block the world out.

“Well, I guess I should get ready for today,” she thought. She really hated it when her ‘dad’ or ‘mom’ lectured her. It was her life after all. 19 years old, she was an adult now! “If God had any bit of compassion for me, he would send enough money down for me to rent my own place. I would be free! Anywhere but here would be better.” 

She looked up at her ceiling, which, was still covered in plastic glow-in-the-dark stars from who knows how long ago. She always liked to connect them together in complicated and intricate designs. “And what I’d give to see the stars…” She wasn’t blind, mind you. She just often thought that she was born a century or two too early to explore the universe.

“Weird. No one has yelled at me to come down yet. Maybe they had finally learnt that I can make my own decisions now.” Sadly, she was awake now and it would take forever to get into that perfect position to fall asleep again, so she got into the shower. After attacking the knots in her long black hair, Yumi pulled on her favourite blue jeans and a creamy white blouse. The blouse had a light blue trim on the sleeves that started at the shoulders and ran down the length of the arm until they turned into flowers at the end. She slipped on her white low top converse and grabbed her phone; which was beside her bed. Nearly forgetting, she picked up her headphones and wrapped them around her neck. Yumi then left her room and headed downstairs to the kitchen.

***

The Doctor smiled as they rode along. “I’ve never really been through a pumpkin patch before,” she laughed. “Can’t exactly remember if I’ve even been on a farm before!” Gordon looked over at her and smiled. 

“Now that’s alright. Now you can see for yourself how everything works. Tell me Johanna, is Leeds a nice area? I’ve always wanted a good travel around.” 

Taking his question into a fake thought, she smiled. "It is. I’ve just gotten back to travelling around again…” She trailed off in her awkward response. She leaned over in the cart and watched as the pumpkins went by. “How do you get them to grow so big? I’ve seen a few pumpkins in my lifetimes and I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed to look like that.” She heard Mr. Emerson laugh. 

“I’m guessing it’s the soil. I’ve changed it out since last years wasn’t the best for them. The stuff is pricey, but it works like a charm! Made them grow twice as large as they usually do!” The Doctor tried to get a closer look. The soil seemed darker than regular. As if it was drenched in water and never got dry. 

“And where did you exactly find this soil? Where did you buy it?” There was an awkward pause of silence for a while. Sitting up and looking over at Mr. Emerson, she raised an eyebrow. “Mr. Emerson? Gordon? Are you alright?” She watched as he came out of his daze and shook his head. 

“Whoops! Sorry. Spaced out there a bit. I guess your question must have gotten me thinking. I can’t exactly remember where I got it from. Strange, isn’t it? It’s been making the weeds and everything else grow like crazy too!” The Doctor stood up and looked over at Gordon. 

“Do you mind if we stop for a bit? I’d like to get a closer look.” Gordon stopped Alex and nodded. The Doctor hopped off and went over to one of the pumpkins. Feeling it all around, she noticed that it was lopsided, all of them were. “That’s strange.” The pumpkins looked bigger than what they were last night. The soil looked like it was very damp around them, almost like mud. She took a handful of dirt a foot away from the pumpkin and examined it. It felt dry and left a stain behind on her hand when she dropped it. “Mr. Emerson? I think there might be something wrong with your soil.”

***

As Yumi headed down, she noticed that the TV wasn’t on. She peered around the corner at the bottom of the stairs. “Lily?” Looking around in the kitchen and in the living room, she noticed she was nowhere to be found. Yumi let out a sigh, guessing she was still asleep upstairs. She decided to make a quick breakfast before heading out. 

Yumi noted that it was colder than usual. She hopped off the porch and walked along the dirt path while rubbing her arms. “It’s freezing out here! I should have brought a jacket.” Making her way towards the cart, she eyed The Doctor by the pumpkins. Gordon laughed but stopped when the horse neighed. 

“Well, look who’s up then! You’re finally starting to wake up on your own now!”

“Haha, very funny. I only came over because Alex is here. Isn’t that right, Alex?” The horse neighed in delight as Yumi stroked his mane. In a sudden movement, the horse’s feet began to sink beneath the dirt. Yumi looked at him. 

“Alex? Alex!” Gordon hopped off the cart and started to take off his gear. The Doctor looked up from her investigation and watched them. 

“Gordon? What’s going on?” Yumi looked over at him as Alex began to sink further down. “Can’t you get your new friend to help us?!” She yelled at him. 

Gordon looked over at the Doctor. She stood up and ran over. Grabbing onto the horse, she and Gordon tried to pull him up, but he was too heavy. She grabbed his halter in hopes of keeping his head above; however, she was pulled down and hit the ground hard. By the time she had gotten up, the horse was already gone. 

“Alex!” Yumi yelled. “What happened to him? What was that?” The Doctor pressed her ear against the ground. Gordon looked at her. 

“What could that have been? What was that?”

“I’m not fully sure, but I have some ideas.” The Doctor said. 

“Well, we best get going to the house right now before that thing comes and gets us next!” 

Yumi glared at him. “We can’t just leave! What about Alex?” 

The Doctor looked up from the ground. “I’m sorry, Yumi. I don’t hear anything. He’s gone.” Yumi gave her a pained looked and stared down at the broken up ground. The Doctor looked down for a moment. Tapping the soil she noticed something. “It’s more solid. There’s definitely something wrong with the soil here. It’s damp by the pumpkins, as if there’s been heavy rain, but here in the pathways… it’s dead dry. Not a drop of water near it. How does that make any sense?” She got up and tapped it again with her foot. Gordon’s head shot up. 

“Lily!” He picked up a broken flashlight. “Did she get eaten as well?!” He began to make his way back to the house. 

“Mr. Emerson! I wouldn’t do that!” She ran after him. He turned to look at her for a short second. “She could be gone forever! Whatever that thing is, it might have my wife! I could save her!” The Doctor hurried after him and gasped as she saw him trip. The ground started to open up around him and a vine wrapped around his rounded body. 

“Mr. Emerson!” The Doctor yelled. 

Yumi looked up from the broken up ground where Alex disappeared and froze at the sight. She didn’t know how her legs were moving, but she began to move quickly towards Gordon. “I got you, Gordon! I got you-!” Yumi and The Doctor grabbed onto his arms and tried to pull him out, but the vine was stronger.

“Just leave me! Go and save Mom!” His words were muffled as he disappeared under the dirt.

“Mr. Emerson!” The Doctor kicked the dirt in frustration and turned away from Yumi. Yumi took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. 

“What was that? What took them?!” Yumi shouted at The Doctor in frustration. “You must know something about this. You must! Why else would you be snooping around here?” She glared at her.

“Yumi, I’m sorry about your mum, dad, and Alex, but I think I may have an idea of what took them.” Yumi crossed her arms and turned away from her. “But please follow close behind me till we get to the house. We should talk somewhere safe over tea or some other beverage.”

Yumi looked over her shoulder and turned around again. “Okay lady, but you’re making it.” The Doctor nodded in agreement and the two of them headed back to the house quietly.


	3. Chapter 3

The kettle whistled with a long stream of steam and The Doctor took it off the oven.

“What’s your name and what are you doing here?” Yumi inquired.

“The Doctor and I ate nearly ten pumpkin pies in under seven minutes, so I won the tour of the pumpkin patch.” She poured the hot water into two mugs that had tea bags in them.

“Ten pies?”

“And they were all delicious!” The Doctor picked up the mugs and brought them over to the kitchen table. She placed one in front of Yumi, who was already sitting in a chair.

“Okay, nevermind that. What happened to them, Doctor…?” She took a sip of her tea.

“It’s just The Doctor. Nothing more, nothing less.” She sat on the table beside Yumi.

“Okay, Doctor. Where are they?”

“Well, how do I say it in a good way? They were…” She looked down into her tea for a moment.

“They were what?” Yumi snapped.

“Eaten. They were eaten by something alien in or under the ground and it’s too late now and they are gone and I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to stop it and-”

“Okay, okay! I get it.” She looked out the window and saw the lonely wooden carriage still sitting among the pumpkins. Her voice had a lump in it. “So Gordon, Lily, and Alex are gone, forever?”

“There’s no way I can get them back Yumi. We just have to figure out what ate them in the first place and try to stop it. Not going to be easy though.” She looked over at her.

“So aliens? You're telling me that ALIENS ate them?” Yumi looked away. The Doctor set down her tea and leaned towards her.

“Yumi, please, you have to believe me! Whatever took your family is down there right now, and if we don’t stop it then it’ll keep getting more people!”

Yumi took a sip of her tea again. “So how’d you even know that the alien things were here in the first place? Are you FBI?” The Doctor smiled, looking around as if to make sure no one was around to hear her and whispered.

“Trust me. I’m more undercover than those guys.”

“Yeah, sure you are.” Yumi laughed. “Your dress sense says it all!”

“Also, I didn’t know. I thought that it would just be a nice little ride through a pumpkin patch, but I assumed wrongly.”

“So what was it that said something was wrong here?” Yumi raised a brow and looked at her. A pit was left in her stomach at the thought of Gordon, Lily, and Alex all underneath the ground with some freaky alien. It made her uneasy.

“Are you alright? You look a bit pale.” The Doctor asked, snapping her out of her trance. She shook her head.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just thinking…” She looked down at her cup again.

The Doctor jumped off the table and walked towards the window. “The soil did.” She pointed at the patch. “The ground around each pumpkin was muddy, but the ground away from them was desert dry.” She pulled out a vial filled with the swampy mud. “I think that the answer lies with what’s inside that new fertilizer Mr. Emerson got.”

Yumi quickly looked up at the vial. “Yeah, what he got…”

“So let’s go to the TARDIS and do an analysis on this sample.” She started towards the back door.

“I’m sorry, what did you just say? TARDIS? Does that word mean something to you?” She set the finished mug of tea on the table and grabbed a nearby sweater off of a hanger.

“Yes, it does and it’s behind your shed.” She smiled at her.

“There’s a… what you call a TARDIS behind my shed?”

The Doctor nodded. “And she doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Okay, whatever you say lady.” Yumi grabbed a fruit and put it in her sweater pocket. She followed The Doctor outside and turned the corner of the shed to see a smaller blue shed behind it. “Did you put this here? And if you did, how?”

The Doctor looked back at Yumi and held up a key in her fingers. “Yuppers, and very cleverly.” She stuck the key into a lock on the door and opened it. “Oh, and you might want to keep your hands on your head when you come in.”

“Is there a chance something’s gonna fall on me?” Yumi was very confused by the strange set of instructions. In fact, she was just generally confused, but what else was new?

“No, no. It’s to prevent your brains from exploding!” She smiled and ran into the box.

“That’s not very comforting…” she mumbled as she stepped in after her. It seemed like a normal shed, but her heart stopped and her eyes widened at the scene before her. The Doctor stood beside a bizarre machine mounted from the floor to the high ceiling. A high ceiling... “W-wait…” she took a step back outside, walked around the blue box, and came back inside. “Wait, what?! It’s… it’s…”

The Doctor smiled at her. “It’s alright, you can say it! I’ll even say it along with you if you like.”

“Oh, this hurts my head!” She spun around, her gaze following the spiralling staircase. “It’s destroying my understanding of three-dimensional Euclidean geometry! It’s not adding up!” She started to run her fingers through her hair quickly. “How does it work? Is the inside of this TARDIS in more than 3 dimensions?”

“Uh, yeah. It is! And it does it quite well too! So much so that you could say it’s…” The Doctor leaned on the console waiting for those four words.

“Mind blowing!”

“True.”

“Amazing!”

“Also true.”

“Unbelievable!”

The Doctor looked down at her shoes and sighed. “I can’t believe it.” She lifted her head up again and gave a pleasant smile. “Perhaps, ‘bigger on the inside’ could describe it also?”

Yumi snapped out of her hypnotic state. “Oh, that too, I guess.”

The Doctor felt a blow to the stomach. “I guess?” she thought. “I guess it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?” With sadness, she pulled out the soil sample from her coat pocket and started analyzing it.

“What organization are you apart of, lady? With all this weird, space looking stuff in here I’d expect no ones heard of it before.” Yumi peered over the controls to her.

The Doctor looked away from the vial she was holding at eye level. “I’m not apart of any organization here on Earth. The TARDIS is mine.”

Yumi walked around the console to The Doctor. “Then, if you aren’t apart of anything, who are you?”

“I already told you. I’m The Doctor.” She gave a quick smile and looked back at the vial. “Just The Doctor. Hmm, strange… it looks like this is regular dirt. Other than it eating people and being pretty damp. If it’s eating others then there must be something under it. You know, I had something like this some years back, but I’m guessing it’s not the Silurians.”

“Silurians?” Yumi questioned. “Lemme guess. It’s some weird lizard thing with laser guns live underground,” she said jokingly.

The Doctor perked up her head. “Well, they mostly sleep, but yes.”

Yumi was taken back for a moment. “Lizard people are real!? That can’t be. Next, you're probably gonna tell me that there’s a monster who steals faces!”

The Doctor tilted her head and gave a grin. “Well…”

Yumi rolled her eyes. “Enough with the alien stuff. Wait…” She paused and took a good long look at The Doctor. “Are YOU an alien?”

“Yes, I am. Is that alright?”

Yumi was a bit surprised and taken back again. She was pulling her leg, right? “Yeah, I guess so. But you don’t look alien.”

“What? Did you expect me to be big and green with three fingers? Wait, nevermind. That’s an Ice Warrior.”

“Sure, lady.”

Suddenly, the TARDIS console made a ‘ding’ noise. The Doctor looked at the monitor in front of her and her eyes widened as she read the contents of the dirt to herself. “No wonder… Yumi!”

“Yes?”

“You know how I said it looked like regular dirt?” She motioned for her to come look at the screen.

“Yeah, did you find something?” She looked intently at the monitor to see what it was or who it was. “I don’t know.” She thought. “Can’t leave any possibilities out.”

The screen had a virtual image on it. One of those low-polygon 3D models that you could see through because it only had green lines outlining the edges, except this image, was with blue lines. It looked like an oblate spheroid (a deformed sphere, if you will) with multiple smaller spheres covering its surface. It sort of looked like a virus to Yumi. Perhaps it was! If so, she hoped humans couldn’t catch it. “Well, what is it?”

“It’s not natural to your environment right now.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, it’s human technology, not alien, but it’s from the future. An Aquamicro Unit.” Yumi crooked her head.

“From the future?”

The Doctor seemed to not have heard her, as she appeared to be in a deep thought. “Yes, of course! They were used to turn the Sahara Desert into the Sahara Forest in 2834! I remember that now, Yumi. It’s quite lovely, the Sahara Forest. We should go sometime.”

Yumi’s face puzzled over even more. Aqua whats? 2834? What did any of this have to do with her parents and Alex? “Are you sane? How could you know anything about 2834? It’s, what, 800ish years from now! Unless…” She looked up at the high ceiling of the TARDIS, back to the ground, and shook her head. “No, that’s not possible. The physicists at CERN say it can’t be done.”

“What, time travel? Well, that’s what they want everyone to think. If people knew about that black hole they made it would mean the end of their funding!”

“That sounds a bit like _Steins;Gate_ …”

Now it was The Doctor’s turn to be puzzled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but what your telling me is that a machine that bends the fabric of your reality is completely fine?” There was a short silence between the two until The Doctor spoke up again. “Here, I’ll show you this thing can travel through time.” She pushed a few buttons and clicked up a few switches.

“Are you for real? Where are we going?” Yumi was getting a little excited now. Time travel. That was one of the things that she loved about science fiction, especially the different types of time travel and the paradoxes involved with them.

“You’ll see!” The Doctor pulled down a lever and the TARDIS boomed into full gear. The sound of the engines filled the console room and lights danced around.

“Impressive! It can put on a light show and make noises…” Yumi said a bit mockingly.

“Oi! She likes you, so don’t be so disrespectful!” The lights and noise stopped. She looked over to Yumi and motioned her to go open the doors. “We’ve landed.”

“Haha, and where might we be?” She started for the front doors and then opened them. Bright lights flooded into the TARDIS followed by the noise of cheering and laughter. Yumi was in shock! “How could we be…”

The Doctor slipped past her and turned around with her arms outstretched to the sky. “Do you believe me now?”

In the distance, a man’s voice boomed from across a lake. “Hello everybody! Welcome to Lake Wildwood’s 52nd annual pumpkin pie eating contest!”


	4. Chapter 4

Breathing in what he thought was his last breath, Mr. Emerson closed his eyes and thought of his wife and Yumi, both of whom he loved so very dearly. The earth continued to pass by him and he started to lose his sense of direction. It was of no use. He couldn’t take it anymore. He needed air now. He had never been the best diver at the lake when he was a boy and it seemed age didn’t help him with that. Beyond Emerson’s control, he opened his mouth wide and inhaled. 

To his surprise he received breath! The dirt that had been scraping against his body had stopped and his head was sticking out of the ground. Opening his eyes he saw only a world of darkness. Suddenly, a light turned on blinding Mr. Emerson. It took a few seconds, but his eyes quickly adjusted to his new surroundings. 

It was a dome-shaped room that was quite barren except for a stone table and a three-legged stool near a corridor. They appeared rough and were a bit uneven in a few spots. There was also a stone path that made a rough circle in the middle of the room and shot a line down the dirt corridor. The centre of the ceiling had a single hanging light from it, which was blinding; almost like the sun. The sound of feet walking on stone could be heard echoing from the distance and getting gradually louder with each step. A creature walked into the room, standing across from Mr. Emerson.

Its mouth opened and said in a deep voice, “Another fine catch. The children will be very pleased.” 

It had a bulb-shaped head that lacked any hair. His face had black beady eyes, no visible nose or ears, and dark green lips. Its arms reached down passed its knees and its fingers were very long. A light beige collar that slightly passed the height of his head seemed to be directly attached to the creature. He was also grassy green and looked to be covered in a rough fur, almost like grass itself. It didn’t appear to be wearing clothes, but Mr. Emerson could have been wrong. 

“Where is she?” he yelled at the green humanoid. The creature walked over and squatted beside him with a grin creeping across his face.

“If you mean the most recent female human, digesting. Was she important?”

Gordon’s face went white and his lips quivered. He then yelled, “Of course she was important! She was my wife!”

He tilted his head to the side. “Really? How unfortunate for you. She only looked to be 12 earth years too.”

“12? She’s older than that!”

The creature stood up and started to walk towards the corridor again. “My apologies. Then she has already been digested. That horse of yours is next. Following him is you.” He left the room. His footsteps echoed on the stone path and got quieter till Gordon couldn’t hear them anymore. 

“This isn't real... What on earth was that thing?” Emerson thought to himself. The room was humid and he was sweating like a pig. “If you could pull the curtain up that would be very appreciated!” he yelled. 

Silence.

“This… this joke isn't funny anymore!” He started to squirm his body in hopes of breaking free from his earthy cage. “Who do you think you are, huh? Hiding behind some cheap mask and costume? It’s a good thing I can't move my arms cause I’d take the law into my hands right about now!” 

The ground around him started to break up from his intense wiggles. It became lose enough for him to pull both his arms out. He then proceeded to try to lift himself out of the hole, but it was rather difficult. Even though he had quite build arms, he was also quite heavy.

After 5 minutes of wiggling about, Emerson had finally gotten his shoulders above the surface. It wasn't long until he had dug himself out. He got to his feet, brushed off some of the dirt that seemed to be everywhere on him, and cocked his handgun. “If she really is gone, I'll kill you!” Emerson ran down the corridor.

When he turned the corner he was confronted by large metal double doors with strange symbols on it. They were all engraved into the iron. The doors also didn’t have any handles, so he decided to push on them to open them. Nothing.

“I don’t have time for this,” Emerson thought. “I have to find her!”

Perhaps the symbols on the door had something to do with opening it. They were at chest height and symmetrical on each door. The two symbols looked like circles with three smaller circles forming a triangle pointing up inside of the larger circles. He pressed his free hand into the middle of the left symbol and the three smaller circles gave off a bluish glow. Emerson holstered his pistol and put his finger on the top circle. It responded by glowing orange. He let go of it and the circle resorted to blue again.

“How on earth did that jokester get through here?” Emerson thought, trying his best to widen his fingers to touch the small circles from the middle. “My hands are too small for this thing. I need something...” He ran back to the dirt dome room he had arrived in and picked up the three-legged stone stool.

At the iron doors, Emerson positioned the stool so that its legs pressed against the smaller circles. It was the right size! He then pushed his chest against the stool to keep it there and pushed his hand into the middle of the symbol. The three circles all lit up orange and the door slowly turned on its own. Emerson placed the stool down. “Wait, there could be more doors like this one here,” he thought, “wherever I am.” He picked it up again, pulled his pistol out from its holster, and pressed on. 

***

Yumi could not believe what she was seeing! The festival from the night before! The only way it could be happening is if they really did travel through time. But how? How did this unearthly box contain power over time itself?

“Well? I asked you a question,” The Doctor said even though she knew the answer.

Yumi shook her head up and down. “How do it… does it… how work?” She really was speechless.

“It’s a bit complicated, so I tend not to go into the details of the physics behind it all, but isn’t this exciting! You get to experience this festival… again!”

“What?” Yumi was still in awe that this was even happening right now. “Oh, right… again…” 

“Ah… I remember this like it was yesterday,” The Doctor said. She grabbed Yumi’s hand and pulled her along. “Do you know where you are right now? Just so we don’t meet up with your past self.”

Yumi wasn’t much of a touchy person, so she attempted to pull her hand away; it didn’t work. “Netflix or Crunchyroll.” 

The Doctor released her grip, stopped, and turned around. “I’m sorry; what?”

“No, it was definitely Netflix right now,” Yumi said while running her fingers through her hair.

“You were at home? What time did the festival start at?”

“6:30, why?”

“But it’s only 8 right now!”

“I left at 7 cause I was bored and stuff. Plus, it’s really childish.”

“Really?” The Doctor was a bit surprised. “I’ll be changing that then!” The Doctor quickly grabbed Yumi’s hand again before she could pull it away and continued around the lake to the stage. 

Mr. Emerson’s voice continued to boom. “Well, welcome Johanna! You don’t sound like you’re…”

Yumi spoke up over him. “Umm… but my parents are here… I saw my dad sucked into the earth, but I can hear him speaking right now.”

The Doctor stopped in her tracks realizing her very fatal mistake. This was not a good place for Yumi to be. If she decided to stop those future events from happening, then there would be even greater consequences! On top of that, she didn’t want to traumatize Yumi, she just needed a convincing place to prove that it really was time travel. They would have to leave now, even if it meant forfeiting watching herself wolf down pies. “And that’s exactly why I brought us here! To remind you that you have hope still. He’s talking now in the past, but if we figure out where he is, he’ll be talking in the future too. Same thing for your mum. I don’t know what I was thinking when I said that they were gone forever. I’ll blame it on the regeneration.” The Doctor placed her hands on Yumi’s shoulders. “So whaddaya say? Let’s head back to the present and save them!” Her nose scrunched a little as she smiled at Yumi.

“Yeah, let’s go do that, Doctor,” Yumi smiled, holding back some tears. She turned and ran back towards the TARDIS. The Doctor followed after her.

Back inside the time machine, the Doctor rushed over to the side of the console, gripped the lever, and pulled it down. The TARDIS began to flash and whirr again. From the outside, the blue box faded away from the scene, leaving behind the noise, laughter, and memories of the night before.

Yumi wiped her eyes and turned to The Doctor. “So, what was so important about these aqua things?”

The Doctor clasped her hands together. “What’s so important about them is it explains the pumpkins and the origin of these underground visitors.” The Doctor started walking around the console room. “First, an Aquamicro Unit is an agricultural technology from the future. How it got here is beyond me at this point, but this does say that whoever it is we are dealing with is most likely of human origin and from the future. Secondly, these devices are the perfect sponge when there’s a group of them. They absorb moisture from the air and surrounding area and release it when it senses that the ground is getting too dry for the plant’s liking. That would explain the desert dry conditions of the pathways in between the rows of pumpkins. They’re also capable of moving necessary nutrients closer to the plant’s roots to have them grow to their maximum potential.”

Yumi ran her fingers through her hair again. It was something she did without thinking. “So how do we find out about who they are? You don’t think…”

“What?”

“You don’t think we would have to get pulled underneath to find them, do you?” Yumi was a bit worried that The Doctor would say yes to that. Truth be told, she had extreme claustrophobia, so the fact that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside was a relief to her.

“No, we can’t risk throwing ourselves down there.”

Yumi gave a big sigh of relief.

“That’s why we’re gonna force them to come to us.” The Doctor smiled and ran outside of the TARDIS.

Yumi didn’t know if this was gonna be better or worse, but at least it didn’t involve diving into a tight space. She followed The Doctor into the sunlight. They were back where they had been prior to going to the festival. 

“Glad to be back at the current day. This is the present right?” Yumi inquired.

“Yuppers! I’ve moved ahead a bit to accommodate for the time we spent in the past, so it’s your ‘present’,” The Doctor said.

“Whoa… so to everyone else, it’s like I disappeared and then reappeared a few minutes later!”

“I suppose so…”

“That’s incredible! And no one even know I was gone. It’s like I never left… but I did.” 

The Doctor smiled at Yumi and said, “No one will be suspicious in the slightest. They might be a bit wary of the disappearance of a large blue box, but no bother. What are perception filters for?” She headed off to the barn, leaving Yumi wondering what a perception filter was.

Inside the barn, The Doctor walked over to a stacked hay pile. She had noticed it out of the corner of her eye when she was in there earlier that morning. Leaning on it, she asked, “Is it alright if I use some of this hay to fish whatever's down there out?”

Yumi thought the last bit of that sentence was a little off, but the whole day had been off already. “I don't see why not. How many do you need?”

“I think two will do just fine.” The Doctor started climbing up it to fetch the top sitting hay blocks. She threw them down and hopped onto the barn floor with them. She picked up one and Yumi picked up the other. “Okay, let's take these to the TARDIS. I'm sure there’s some rope lying around here.” She walked around the barn and found some behind an old tractor tire. She picked it up and started to coil it up. “Here we go. This will do perfectly.” The two of them walked back into the TARDIS and The Doctor tied the hay bales together. She then secured them to the handrails inside the TARDIS near the front doors. “Do you get nauseous at all?”

“By what?”

“Just your general nausea.”

“Not really, why?”

“Okay, let’s do this then.”

“Um, did you hear me?”

“Hopefully this works!” The Doctor pushed some buttons on the console and the TARDIS started to light up.

“Hello? Doctor, what are you doing?”

“Correction, what are ‘we’ doing. Answer: Fishing.”


	5. Chapter 5

Behind the large iron doors were a set of spiralling stone stairs leading down into the earth. There were lights on the inside wall of the staircase. They didn’t flicker at all and was like the hanging light in the room Gordon found himself in, blinding to look directly. Perhaps it was an LED? That didn’t matter at all to him though. He was more concerned about how to save his wife and escaping.

Emerson followed down with his gun and stool on hand. His feet echoed with every step he took and his sweat continued to get heavier. It was even more humid than before. “Why would a prankster go through all this trouble?” he thought. “It’s almost as silly as something on _Scooby-Doo_.”

He wiped some sweat from his brow and continued to make his way down the staircase. “I wonder how long I’ve been down in this wretched place,” he thought to himself. “These stairs seem to go on forever.” It had been nearly five minutes of spinning round and round, but he finally got to the bottom of the stairs.

There was another door much like the previous one. The humidity of the air was suffocating now and it had to have been 110 degrees or so. He took off his plaid shirt, revealing his muscle shirt underneath. He held onto his plaid shirt while he opened the door with the stool. The hinges shrieked. “Dang it, be quiet,” he whispered to the door. The door must not have heard Emerson because it wailed louder. A bright light came through the door. “I don’t believe it. This can’t be real! This isn’t real!”

He was on the edge of a large stone cavern, which had a small city in the middle. He took a few steps in and noticed that he was on a stone bridge. It was going over a large mote of water that encircled the city. There was a single building that looked to be all metal with many vines covering it. In fact, vines were everywhere in this underground place. Lights were everywhere and it was almost like daytime. The humidity and heat were still intense.

Gordon crossed over the bridge and got an uneasy feeling in his gut. It was as if he had eyes on him from all directions. He slowly turned around to the door he had just come through and a tall figure was standing in the frame of it; it was the prankster! Or was it? Emerson was having a hard time thinking that he could put all of this together. Either way, Gordon had his gun in hand just in case.

The costumed man lifted his arm up and said, “This is not a place for you humans. Please, come with me.”

“You humans? What’s that supposed to mean?” Gordon placed his shirt and stool down onto the ground.

“That I am not human and you are. Now come.”

Emerson’s eyes scanned the area and he seemed to be alone with this, thing. “What are you then?” He pointed his gun at him.

“I am a Vermord. Please, lower your gun or I’ll take it by force.”

Gordon was shaking. This was an alien! He had to shoot it. It took his wife away, after all. Gordon lifted his gun. “Where did you put my wife? Where is she!” He looked the creature in the eye.

The Vermord looked at him with a confused gaze for a second. “The woman? Oh dear. It appears I didn’t make myself clear earlier. She is dead; eaten by the children.”

Gordon raised his brows. “Dead?!” he thought. “Eaten?!”

“Now come along. My siblings need their nutrients for them to grow and survive.” The limp vines that covered the cobbled path of the bridge came to life and secured themselves around Gordon’s ankles. He shot twice before a vine whipped the gun out of his hand. They wrapped around his arms but went limp again. The Vermord let out a scream and hit the ground with a loud thud. Gordon was always a good shot and the holes through the creature's head and heart were a testament to that. He carefully slipped his ankles out of the vines and rushed to his gun.

Examining everything around him he sighed. He walked over to the body of the Vermond and tapped it with his foot. The creature didn't stir. “Thank goodness.” He walked over to the stool and sat down with a sigh. This was all too much to take in and his mind was racing. Had Lily truly been eaten? Was she truly killed? What of Johanna and Yumi? What could have happened to them on the surface? So many questions flooded his mind with so little answers.

“Well, I’m not going to find anything sitting here.” Gordon picked himself up and looked back at the stone city. He took one last glance at the Vermord and something caught his eye. Gordon kelt down beside the corpse and placed his hand onto the bullet wound. His hand was covered in a sticky amber colour substance. “Sap? What type of creature is this? A plant creature?”

Gordon got up again and went towards the large metal building to see what he could find there, leaving behind his shirt and stone stool. He opened the door and saw rows and rows of small Vermonds that were rooted in the ground. The humidity was off the charts in this large dome of a structure and the stench was unbearable! It smelt of rotten flesh...

“Oh my gosh! What the heck is this? What is this?” There were the bones of people laying beside the Vermonds and some bodies slowly decomposing as well. “Alex! Lily!” Emerson let out multiple gunshots on the lines of small Vermonds. Sap slowly flowed out of the bullet holes. “Lily! Lil-” Gordon’s yells faded as his vision became blurred. He then fell face first onto the ground.

***

“Mum, it looks like there is something amiss in the nursery.” A blue and red dot flashed on a small monitor.  
  
“What is it Thimis?” A Vermond in a white lab coat walked over and stood over Thimis’ chair to look at his display of the nursery.  
  
“Aesis’ tracker has not moved for about 4 minutes and there is a foreign entity walking around the facility. Shall I go investigate, Salassea?” Thimis asked.

“Hmm, it could be a potential threat to our survival,” Salassea mused. “If it is, destroy it.”

Thimis got out of his chair and grabbed a spear from off the wall. He hit the butt of the staff on the ground and the spearhead lit on fire. He quickly hit it again and the fire extinguished. “Will do, mum.” He also put on a metal gauntlet for his right hand. And with that, he left the room and made his way towards the nursery.

***

Yumi stared at The Doctor, who was grinning. “I’m still horribly lost right now, but you seem to be smiling away at what you’re planning. What do you mean by fishing?”

“Well, you see…” The Doctor flipped a switch and the doors closed, “those bales of hay will be our bait for these ground creatures.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out two small metal disks. “These are trackers. If they take the bait, then I’ll know the location of where it’ll end up.” She then attached one tracker to each bale.

“Okay… so we are fishing for these ground creatures with the bales and rope, but should we go on a roof or something?” Yumi sat down on a bale and crossed her legs.

The Doctor pulled down a leaver and the whole place started to shake. Yumi also fell to the floor, but quickly grabbed onto the railing. “Oh, did I not tell you? The TARDIS can fly as well!” The Doctor beamed to Yumi. “We’ll be fishing in the sky!” She flipped the switch to open the doors again and Yumi, very carefully, walked towards the doors to look out.

“Oh my gosh! This is amazing! Ha! I can see my house from here!” Yumi laughed. The little blue house was maybe 30 feet below them. To the north was the lake and a few boats were out on the water with people probably doing some real fishing. “So this can fly and time travel?”

“She sure can!”

“That’s so cool!” Yumi said. Then she thought, “Maybe this is the answer I’ve been looking for. This blue box, this strange lady, this little adventure that’s being had right now. Maybe… maybe this is how I’ll get to travel the world!” She let go of the railing and stepped to the edge of the doors and looked down. The pumpkins dotted the field below. It looked like a large black sheet with orange polka dots on it.

“Alrighty,” The Doctor said, “let’s start pushing those bales out of here!” She swiftly moved towards the doors and her sleeve caught onto a few switches on the console. The TARDIS started to shake and tremble. Yumi fell backwards into the TARDIS and the doors closed automatically. “Yumi!”

“Ow. Doctor, what’s happening?”

“I think I turned off the TARDIS’ gyro-stabilizers! Let’s see now.” The Doctor ran around the console. “No, no, no! Come on! Please turn back on!” Frantically, she pushed buttons in hopes of regaining stability and the TARDIS, finally, stopped its tremors. “Sorry about that Yumi. You alright there?”

Yumi was spread out on the floor. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She picked herself and her headphones up and she wrapped the headphones around her neck again. She then tucked her hair out with her hands and let it fall straight onto her back.

Dong!

Yumi looked around the room. “Doctor, what is that noise?” It seemed to be emitting from every corner.

“Those are the Cloisters!” The Doctor pulled a monitor over to her; which, had red circular Gallifreyan being written across. Then, 99%, 98%, 97%, and so on. “Yumi! Hold on to something; anything!”

Yumi grabbed onto the railings again. “What are the Cloisters?”

Dong!

“It’s a sort of alarm that sounds when disaster is imminent; meant to get the crew to their stations and out of the swimming pool!” The Doctor quickly explained.

“Okay, so what’s wrong with your machine?”

With a panicked face, The Doctor shouted out, “The mass dampeners are shutting down! I’m trying to counteract it by lessening the relative gravity, but we are most definitely going to crash through the Earth’s crust!” She was scrambling around the console, typing commands into the terminal of the TARDIS. “The TARDIS has a collapsing star inside it! Do you have any idea how much mass that is? And that’s only one room! There are hundreds of thousands of rooms here! I did just mention there’s a pool in here.”

Dong!

The TARDIS began falling from the sky and smashed one of the pumpkins. The orange guts gushed in a large radius and onto the TARDIS’ exterior. The TARDIS, however, didn’t stop there. It continued down into the earth, almost like a drill. The Doctor and Yumi watched on the monitor as the ground ran upwards. The Doctor was still typing, flipping, and pushing on the console in hopes of reversing the decreasing mass dampeners.

“There!” The Doctor exclaimed. The TARDIS came to an instant halt and the two fell to the floor. They both started to laugh. “How was that?”

“You’re terrible at using this machine, aren’t you?” Yumi continued to laugh. She jumped up to her feet again.

“Oi! I’d like to see you do better than that!” The Doctor chuckled. Her nose wrinkled up again with her smile. “That really was a close call though.”

“Yeah, it was,” Yumi agreed. “Hmm, and I suppose that we are the bait now, Doctor.” She looked at the monitor again that only showed the earth around them. There were some small rocks throughout the dirt and some roots too.

The Doctor looked at her. “Yeah, I guess we are now. And it probably won’t take too long for us to be detected. So much for reducing risks. How’s your claustrophobia?

“It’s doing just fine. I think I can manage it,” Yumi replied. She pulled out her phone and saw zero bars on it. “Makes sense,” she thought.

“Are you ready then, Yumi?” The Doctor asked eagerly.

Yumi clenched her fist and, with enthusiasm, proclaimed, “I was born ready for this!”

“That’s the spirit!” The Doctor smiled again. “And I regenerated for this,” she added.


	6. Chapter 6

Making his way down the spiral staircase, Thimis’ feet echoed with each step. The right side of his body flicker from the light. The light revealed that there was a black tattoo on his right shoulder: _SLP_. He had a scar over his right eye too. The spear was in his left hand and on his right hand was his metal gauntlet.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the door by placing his right hand onto it. The light of the cavern fell onto Thimis and he activated his spear; pointing the flaming head in front of him. Vines still covered the cobbled path leading to the stone bridge and he took extra caution not to step on them. When he reached the bridge, he saw the lifeless body of Aesis.

“Aesis!” Thimis yelled out. He deactivated his spear, ran, and knelt by Aesis’ side. His knees landed in something sticky. “Aesis, what happened…” Thimis’ tongue choked when he looked at Aesis wounds. Amber fluid was oozing out of his head and chest. Thimis was in a panic. Something had a gun down here and it wasn’t him. He inspected the bullet wounds and, from the lack of burns, determined that it was not a laser gun, but an old fashion gun. “Great, just what I need,” Thimis whispered sarcastically. He took his right hand, grabbed hold of one of the vines, and closed his eyes. “Salassea, do you hear me?” he thought.

“Yes, I hear you along with the screams of our children there,” Salassea answered back. “Your mission now is to stop this foreign entity now and to save our children! And please, be careful.”

“Yes, mum,” Thimis thought back. He opened his eyes and let go of the vine that he had communicated through. It was probably for the best that he didn’t tell her that their firstborn was dead right now. He then snapped his fingers on his right hand and a force shield appeared in front of him. The shield followed his forearm and it covered his body and some of his legs with his arm crossed in front of his chest. He activated his fire spear again, ran pass a stool, and towards the metal dome building.

All of the stone buildings along the way were still quiet and vacant, which, gave the humid air a tense feeling. Thimis thought to himself, “It’s a real shame that these buildings won’t be used.” He continued on his way to the dome and saw that the metal door was wide open.

Lying inside the nursery with a dirtied white muscle shirt and jeans on was Mr. Emerson. He was soaked in sweat and was breathing very slowly. Thimis looked up from him to see the damage that was done by him. His black eyes widened at the sight of nearly all of the children with sap poured from them. “This human!” he yelled. He lifted his spear and readied to thrust it through Emerson, when, the entire place began to shake, like an Earthquake. Quickly, Thimis grabbed hold of a vine and thought, “Salassea, I have found the intruder; a human. Do you know what is causing this tremor?”

“There is another entity coming from above at incredible speeds right now. Pinestores never told us that humans had drills this fast and powerful in 2018,” Salassea informed.

Thimis’ thought back, “That's because they don’t. We’re dealing with something not of this world!”

“Could it be the one Pinestores warned us about?” Salassea mused.

“The Doctor? I sure hope not. He committed genocide on our predecessors and if he is on his way, then the invasion will have to be called off.” Thimis stated.

“No! We can’t. Not when Pinestores needs us to succeed, Thimis,” Salassea reminded him. “He gave us this world and time so that we could avenge our fallen kindred.”

“I know, but if we don’t succeed? What then? We die like last time and I can’t agree with that!” Thimis thought loudly.

“Thimis, are you doubting him that gave us a second chance?” Salassea questioned.

“No! Just that, if Pinestores was really a great and powerful person, why does he need us? It’s almost like…” Thimis began to think.

“Thimis!”

“I’m just thinking out loud!”

“It’s for the children’s future and ours. That’s why we’re doing this. Remember that.”

***

The Doctor sat down on the hay bale next to Yumi and crossed her legs. She looked up at the tall ceiling for a moment. “A starry sky…” she thought. Yumi glanced over at her and put her phone away. She then looked up to see what The Doctor was looking at.

The Doctor said, “A different interior design I had could ‘open’ the ceiling to view the galaxies and Universe above us. I’ll have to add that back.” She jumped off of her bale and walk to the other side of the console. “Yumi! Come over here! I think you’ll like this.” Yumi got up and walked over to her. She was standing underneath the spiral staircase. “Look at this.” She pressed a button on the wall and a blue hologram appeared around the two.

Yumi spun around to take in all of the star systems that the hologram projected. “Wow…” Yumi said in awe. “Is this where you’re from?”

“Yes, I was born here,” The Doctor pointed at a planet orbiting two stars. “This is Gallifrey, the home of my people. And that there is Pazithi Gallireya, orbiting around my planet.” A smaller sphere followed an elliptical path around Gallifrey. “The light it reflects from the suns gives off a copper light at night, right after the orange burning sky disappears.” Four other planets could be seen in Gallifrey's system as well.

“What are these other stars then?” Yumi asked. There were maybe sixteen other stars with planets of their own.

“These stars all make up the Constellation of Kasterborous. I wish I could have shown you how beautiful they were all together.” She ran her hands through the holographic star systems; which, made their forms waver until her hand passed through.

Yumi raised her brow and said, “Did something happen to it all?”

The Doctor looked away. “No, not all of it. Just, not all of it is there anymore.” She pressed the button again and the systems were sucked back into an orb attached to the underneath of the stairs. “Anyways, what’s taking them so long? I thought we would have at least received some contact with whatever we’re dealing with. Some room service this is!” She walked over to the console and looked at the monitor. “Finally, something! Yumi, the scanners picked up on something.” Yumi joined The Doctor looking at the screen.

“What is it, Doctor?” Yumi asked, looking at the screen of circles.

“We are just above a cavern. I’m going to move the TARDIS down there and we can explore around.” The Doctor entered in some numbers and pulled the lever. The time machine disappeared from the dirt column it had made and reappeared on a stone bridge inside of a large cavern. “Let’s see here.” She scanned the scanner to see if anyone was outside. “Yumi, look! What is that?”

Yumi ran her hands through her black hair. “I’m not sure, but it isn’t moving.” She put her hands into her sweater pockets.

The Doctor jumped over to the doors and motioned Yumi to follow. She did and the heat and humidity hit them both hard upon opening them. Yumi took off her sweater and headphones, leaving them in the TARDIS. They both walked up to the green body to investigate it. The fingers were long and had grass like fur, like the rest of its body. Its head was bulb-shaped with black eyes and it had a beige collar connected to it.

“Strange.” The Doctor scratched her head. “Shot dead.” She placed her hand on the creature’s forehead. “And sap for blood.” She rolled the head over to the side to look at its neck. “SLP. Is that suppose to mean anything? SLP College, sea level pressure, self-loading pistol, South London Press?”

“I’m not sure.”

“That’s alright. Neither do I, but I think I know what this creature is! Or at least its origin.” She got up and looked over at the stone buildings. “A long time ago, I came across a creature created by humans in the late 30th century like this called a Vervoid!”

“A Vervoid?”

“Yes!” She started to walk around the corpse, still talking. “A slave race created to serve humans and help them harvest Mogar. I sadly had to destroy them because their main goal was to destroy all of their creators and animal-kind. They were on their way to Earth when- wait, how and where did you get that?” She pointed at what Yumi was taking a bite of.

With her mouth full, Yumi said, “A pear from my house.” She took another bite from the fruit. “I grabbed it on our way out to the TARDIS. Why?”

If disgust had a face associated to it, The Doctor’s would be the first in line for it. She took in a deep breath and let out all the air from her lungs. “Well, just eat that ‘thing’ away from me.”

Yumi shrugged. “More for me, I guess.” She looked over to the other side of the bridge. “Doctor, look!” She ran over and picked up a shirt. The Doctor came over to her. “This is Gordon’s shirt he was wearing.”

The Doctor looked down at the ground. “And it looks like he put up a fight.” She bent down and picked up a bullet shell. “Hmm. They must not have taken his Glock off of him.” She dropped the shell and looked towards the city again. “A fatal mistake for them.” She paused for a moment. “Well, let’s get a move on, shall we?” Yumi nodded in agreement and they started towards the large metal dome in the middle of the city.

The stone buildings were empty on the insides and didn’t have much going on for them. The stones were not cut all that well, leaving holes and cracks through them. Vines grew in between this nooks and crannies of the buildings, seemingly being the real supports of the structures than the stones themselves. The walk had vines lying everywhere on it, but The Doctor and Yumi made sure to tread cautiously to avoid disturbing any nearby Vervoid-like creatures.

“Yumi,” The Doctor whispered, “I see one standing right there in that doorway.” She pointed towards the opened door of the metal dome. “Stay behind and follow my lead.” The two casually walked towards the doors. The creature had it’s hand down on a vine and its eyes were closed. “Interesting.” The Doctor bent down on her knees and placed her hand on the vine as well, closing her eyes. She heard dissonant whispers from afar, but the longer she held her hand on the vine, the clearer and louder it got.

“… hat… tor is… he ...ould I… act Pinesto… no, he is… using us… leave this… before it’s too late!”

“Hello,” The Doctor thought, “how are you all today?”

“Who is this?” A female voice echoed back.

“I’m The Doctor. Now, about abducting humans… why?”

“Please!” The female voice talked back. “Please don’t hurt us!”

“I haven’t made up my mind yet. Why are you abducting humans?” The Doctor demanded.

“Well,” the male started, “they are for our children. The soil down here isn’t the best for them or us, so we need nutritious somehow.”

“But whatever happened to use those Aquamicro Units all on the surface?” The Doctor inquired.

“Those were for phase 2 of our invasion of the surface…” the male voice said.

The other spoke over him, “But, we have been talking for the past while and think it may be wise to abandon our efforts for survival here.”

The Doctor was puzzled by their responses. They were going to invade, but changed their minds last minute? It didn’t make much sense to her right now. “How did you get here? At this time? I thought all the Vervoids were destroyed, but you look a bit different from them.”

“2989,” the female voice started, “while travelling on the _Hyperion V_ towards Earth, the human crew was bombarded by a cluster of space debris. We crashed into an unknown world, where Thimis and I began to mature. However, the world itself was barren and we knew that we could not survive off of humans forever.”

“We were visited by him,” Thimis continued. “A friend to all and a peaceful watcher of the Universe. He gave us our names. He told Salassea and I that we should avenge the annihilation of our ancestors, the Vervoids, and populate the Earth with our kind.”

“We never cared much for invading, but we knew we would at least survive with this man,” Salassea explained.

The Doctor thought to herself, “Well, I know that wouldn’t have been me.” She thought back to Thimis and Salassea. “What was his name?”

“Sir Landlord Pinestores,” Salassea said, “but he had another that he went by. He never told us. He travelled with us to Earth in a capsule of some sort. He left us here and said that ‘Our actions won’t have any consequences to the future.’”

The Doctor thought to herself and herself only. “This sounds all too familiar. Invading in the past, paradoxes being averted, and salvation given by one man?” The Doctor released the vine and fell backwards to the ground. She cried out, “The Master!”


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor looked all around to see where Yumi was. She saw Yumi kneeling beside a roundish man. She got to her feet and walked over to Yumi. “Mr. Emerson!”

Yumi turned her head towards The Doctor. Tears were flowing down her face. “He was just lying there face first!” His clothes were soaked from his own sweat and his face was bright red. Breathing for him was quick and shallow.

“He needs cool air and water, now!” The Doctor instructed. “Let’s bring him to the TARDIS.” She began to try to hoist Gordon up, but he was too heavy for her. She slung his arm over her shoulder. Yumi did the same on the other side and they hoisted him up together. “There’s lots of water and the TARDIS has a medical bay as well.” They carried him as quickly as they could to the TARDIS, watching out for the many vines that lay sprawled across the ground.

They placed down Emerson into a chair by the pool and The Doctor gave Yumi some water to give to him. “I’m going out there to see what to do with those Vermords. I’ll be back.” And with that, she ran out the TARDIS doors and back to Thimis. When she got there, he was standing by the metal dome’s door.

“So,” Thimis started, “what will you do with us?” He slowly walked from his spot towards The Doctor. “I’m only looking for a safe haven for Salassea and my future generations. All of our children are gone, Doctor. Besides Salassea, I have nothing.”

The Doctor looked on the poor alien with compassion for him. “I promise you. I can get you to a planet where the soil is rich and where the both of you can thrive in peace. I promise.” She offered her right hand to Thimis and he grabbed hold of it. “Go get Salassea and meet me by that blue box over there.” Thimis nodded and ran over the exit of the cavern, resisting the urge to cradle the body that lay upon the bridge.

The Doctor was still a bit confused by it all. “This isn’t The Master’s style,” she thought. “He would have popped up by now. He would have made sure his invasion was happening. It’s as if he threw them here and scooted off to another planet to terrorize. And why the abductions? Was that something they were told by this Sir that they had to do? They seem intelligent enough to realize there are enough nutrients in the soil to not have to live off of corpses. I’ll just have to watch myself for now.”

The doors to the cavern opened again and Thimis, followed by Salassea, ran to their son’s side. The Doctor slipped into the TARDIS. She couldn’t bear to watch any parent mourn over a child; she would know.

Some 30 minutes passed and the two still were outside. Mr. Emerson had come to consciousness but was very weak. Thankfully, there was plenty of electrolytes on board that he could drink. Yumi decided to walk around the Tardis, but not too far from the console room. The Doctor stuck her head outside just to make sure that they were still there. The two had laid the fire spear beside their son, and he was wearing the gauntlet shield as well. They both got up and looked towards The Doctor.

“Thank you,” Salassea said, still choking on tears.

“I think we are ready, Doctor,” Thimis said. “This, right here, this is our true genesis.” He looked over to Salassea and smiled.

Salassea smiled weakly back, “And Aesis and the unnamed children will always be with us.”

“Right. Let’s take you to your new home now.” The Doctor opened the doors to let in the two Vermords. “This is my TARDIS. She can travel anywhere in space and time. Let’s start.”

And with that, the two walked through those great ancient blue doors like many had done before. But for them, it felt a little different than for most everyone that came inside. Sounds became dull, and the world hazed over.

“It’s gonna be great on Iren! There are trees that glisten in the sunsets brilliant silvers and golds!” She pressed some buttons and the TARDIS breathed into life. “Yumi! Come over here!” The Doctor turned around to the two refugees. “Now then.” She smiled, but it melted away slowly. “Is everything alright with you two?”

They did not respond to The Doctor’s question. They just slowly walked closer to the console. Then, they started turning knobs and flipping switches like mad! The Doctor frantically tried to pull them away from the controls, but she was thrown away and landed on her side.

“Doctor!” Yumi had just come in to see The Doctor flung 5 metres away from the centre console by one of the Vermonds. “Are you alright?” Yumi ran over to check on her.

Placing her hands in front of her, The Doctor picked herself up. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” She turned her attention towards the Vermonds. “Please! Please just listen to me! I want to help you. I can get you to a different planet, I can help you find a new home if you would just listen to me.” She stuck her hand into her coat and pulled out her sonic screwdriver. It buzzed and sparks flew from the console into Thimis’ and Salassea’s eyes. They fell back and ran at The Doctor. Thimis grabbed her by the throat and raised her into the air; her feet dangling. The Doctor grabbed and scratched at the hand that wrapped and squeezed around her air duct. Salassea ran and grabbed Yumi in the same manner.

The Doctor thought to herself, “I don’t need much oxygen, but after a few minutes, I’ll die from this!” She tried to look over at Yumi. “And she, being a human, has less time!” It really did seem like this was the end of the line. Compassion had gotten the best of The Doctor again. “At least I’m at home though.”

BANG! THUD!

Yumi gasped for air. She was on the floor now and so was Salassea. Amber sap began flowing out of Salassea’s head. Mr. Emerson stood in the frame of a door coming from the medical bay. In his hands was a gun and a shell lay on the metal floor beside him. “Stay away from my daughter!” He aimed at Thimis’ head.

BANG! THUD!

***

“But why?” Mr. Emerson asked. He was sitting on a chair at the dining room table of his house. The sun was setting just now, burning the sky with a streak of orange and pink on the clouds. Yumi and The Doctor sat across from him. Yumi ran her fingers through her hair.

“I’m sorry, I don't know why,” The Doctor softly said. “It’s just how it is.” She looked out the window. The pumpkins still stood in their rows as they had done before. Her eyes fell down towards the backyard and something caught her eye. She rose and went to go investigate it.

“Where’re you going?” Mr. Emerson said while rising from his chair too.

The Doctor opened the back door and pointed to a tree. “That tree wasn’t there this morning.” Its trunk was a hand’s with thick and it’s leaves, even though it was now autumn, were emeralds to the eyes.

“Look at that,” Yumi pointed towards the pumpkin patch. The three ran outside and were greeted by orange ghostly figures walking towards the small tree from the field. “What are they?”

“I think you should be asking who, Yumi,” The Doctor corrected. The figures of orange light varied in size and on closer inspection were humanoid in appearance.

“Lily!” Gordon shouted, running towards one of the lights. It continued to walk at the same speed and passed through Gordon. “Lily?” He turned around to see Lily place her left hand on the tree. She offered her other hand for Gordon to grab hold. Hesitantly, he stretched his hand forward and lightly placed his hand on top of Lily’s. In a puff of light, Lily and the other orange figures disappeared. Oranges, greens, and blues danced through the air and into the small tree. As more light flowed into the trunk, the tree grew taller and larger; its canopy engulfed the sky.

The sun’s last sliver of light vanished under the horizon and the last dancing lights absorbed into the great tree. The full light of the moon rose into the sky and a chilling wind came through from the west. Yumi zipped her sweater up and placed her hands into its front pockets. The Doctor’s coat and hair swayed slightly in the cool breeze. Gordon placed his right hand onto the trunk of the tree and wept.

“I am and always will be with you, silly.”

Gordon looked up and around him. That distinct voice spoke all around and through him. “Lily?”

“Yes?”

“I see,” Gordon thought, “she has become a part of this great oak. But what were those other lights?”

Many voices gathered together and echoed in one accord, “Victims to the Vermords and the Vermords themselves, now at peace.”

Lily spoke soft and clearly, “Goodbye, for now, Gordon. Take care of Yumi for me. She may not be blood, but she’s definitely family.”

Tears falling, Gordon replied, “I promise.” And with that, the light extinguished and the three were left in the light of the full moon.

***

“Tell me what your answer will be in the morning,” The Doctor instructed Yumi. They were standing by the TARDIS; which was sitting behind the shed again.

Yumi’s face had a look of uncertainty on it. “But my dad…” she started.

“It’s a time machine!” The Doctor exclaimed, raising her arms into the air. “I could pop you back in that exact spot seconds later and no one would notice!” She snapped her fingers and light flooded out of the TARDIS doors. “So? 7 o’clock this spot tomorrow?” She smiled and her nose scrunched up.

Yumi looked out to the pumpkins and towards the house. She let a sigh and said, “Screw it. All of time you say?”

“And space as well,” The Doctor added.

“Then let’s get going!” Yumi exclaimed. “Show me the future I’ve dreamed of seeing all of my life.” Yumi ran through the doors.

The Doctor stepped inside and poked her head out one last time. “Brilliant. Brilliant!” The hinges made a creaking noise as she closed the doors and that magnificent blue box disappeared under the silver shine of the moon.

Mr. Emerson had finally fallen asleep in his now half-empty bed. His fingers clenched onto a photo held by his heart of Lily, Yumi, and himself. A whirring sound came from outside, but his dreaming was far too deep to hear it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you reader for making it to the end! I know that updating on this story was sporadic, but it's finally done! fishcustardfairytales and I are planning on writing more in this series (now that we have an idea for a direction to this series), but we also have an 11th doctor and Rory short story in the works as well. See ya then!


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